Norsinovia

Races

RACES OF NORSINOVIA

Humans

The human population of Norsinovia came to the continent from countries overseas to the east, settling the new frontier for profit, power, and peace. Although many nations have seen their people make the journey over the water to Norsinovia’s shores, the chief and first among them is the country of Einovia and it is from Einovia that many of Norsinovia’s customs and cultures have been continued and developed.

Einovan, and by extension Norsinovan, culture is built upon the precept that a man’s (or woman’s) strength comes from what he can build out of his life. Whether it is wealth or power, reputation or craft, Einovans are fiercely proud of their deeds and accomplishments. This has given rise to an objectivist nation with little interference by the state and as such the nation has flourished. The Einovan governmental structure is based on a city state model in which the regulation, taxation, and protection of a region is handled from regional centers. These centers represent themselves at a national council where state wide matters are concerned. In cases of disputes between two city states, the council votes and the states are bound by the decision. If a vote is locked, the matter is defered to the next council meeting. In locked vote situations that require urgent resolution, the council takes a second vote determining which city state is furthest from the issue at hand, unduely influenced, or otherwise compromised. That city state’s vote is then omitted from the original lock and the stalemate is broken.

Einovans are commonly fair skinned with light coloured hair (sandy blondes, mousy browns, etc.) though darker skin and hair tones are not unheard of or unseen in all levels of society. The frontier nature of Norsinovia tends to discourage racial motivated discrimination, though it still exists in some forms. Einovans are tall, tending to be between 5’8” and 6’4” in height as an average. All other features (facial, body-type, eye colour, etc.) are widely varied.

Many of the Vashka have also made the journey to Norsinovia to start a new life, leaving persecution and prejudice in the old countries of the East. Nomadic and without a country of their own, the Vashka typically travel the back roads and ways of the land in groups large enough to populate small villages, taking everything they need to live with them in large covered wooden carts hitched to teams of horses or mules. Their carts double as small homes when they stop at a location for an extended period of time. The presence of the Vashka is almost always an unwanted one in the eastern countries and they are often forced to move on from a territory when discovered. Norsinovia represents a unique opportunity for them. Many young Vash, upon reaching the new world, give up their nomadic life to persue the opportunities and challenges available to them on the frontier where their race is less of an issue.

The Vashka are generally darker in complexion than Norsinovans of Einovan ancestry, with dark olive skin, brown or black hair, and brown or green eyes. Vash who have blue eyes instantly betray a mixing of the bloodline with someone not of Vash ancestry. They are most often thinly built with very little fat due to constant activity – The Vashka always have a task to do and very little time to ‘lay about’.

Humans make up the settling population of Norsinovia without exception. The general population would not accept the idea that there are any other civilized races, preferring to view the Tarkin to the south as barbaric half-men, more animal than anything else. The fact that no living Norsinovan has even seen a live Tarkin helps to protect this view. None but a very select few Norsinovans have any knowledge of the living existence of the Syradhi and the vast majority have no knowledge of them at all. Over the years there has been plenty of evidence unearthed to support the notion of the Outlanders as sentient, cultured (somewhat) beings, but this information is mostly kept among higher educated circles and treated as the subject of endless debate.